Cruelty

8: 40 am, UA high school.

"I don't like being told what to do" 

Was the only excuse your brain could come up with every time you found yourself  in a situation you weren't supposed to be involved in the first place. 

There was something about doing what you are not supposed to that excited you. Something within you that every time someone told you not to do something, the first instinct on your mind was, "Do it!" 

Were you trying to prove youself to others? 

Or you simply wanted to feel the adrenaline of doing something you weren't allowed to? 

Was it something within every teenager to defy the wishes of authority figures? 

No, it went deeper than that. 

Deeper than just a little tantrum. Deeper than you just dyeing your hair to remark your individuality. It was something else.

You could't explain what it was, clearly.

But one thing as for sure, you always aimed for what you couldn't obtain. And this time was no exception. 

The only difference was that this time what you were trying to get, seemed more... reachable, than usual. 

"You are not taking the entrance exam" were the only words that came out of your mother's lips that morning, when you decided to commit the mistake and ask her if it was okay for you to take the UA high entrance exam, just for fun, of course.

She wouldn't give you her permission, she was not going to let you take the exam, and you knew it was not up to debate. But that didn't  meant you were actually going to listen to her. 

And to the surprise of anyone, there you were, standing at the gates of UA high school, ready to take admission examen your mother just prohibited you to take.

"YOU DID NOT", your friend yelled from the other side of the phone.

"Yes, I am here already" you slowly talked back to her putting the phone away from your ear because of your friend's screams that could have left you deaf.

"Hamada Y/n, please tell me you are not going to take the UA high admission exam" 

"Kyo, if you are going to scold me for how much trouble I'm gonna get and..."

"I'm not gonna scold you for that!" Your friend cut you off "I'm gonna scold you for how much trouble you are gonna get ...and you didn't invite me in! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH FUN WOULD IT BE"

"I thought you didn't want to go to UA so"

"Until yesterday you didn't want to go to UA either" 

"I still don't want to is just that..."

"Let me guess, your mother told you not to do it"

"Pretty much"

"Honestly y/n, I understand the whole defying your mother thing, but you were literally accepted into an academy on the other side of the world, 

"Is United States the other side of the world?" 

"That's not the point, the point is that you are only applying at UA out of boredom!?"

"I still don't get the point" 

"You could get into UA with your eyes closed, but you waste your potential in little tantrums" 

Your friend is right, you know?

"You are giving me too much credit, is japan's most prestigious hero school for a reason, I doubt I'll make it... much less without training"

"Oh, little y/n always so humble of her own abilities "

"You still going to Shiketsu?" 

"You can bet your ass I am!" He yelled once more "You know how hard I had to work to get a spot here? You should've come, we could annoy the shit out of everyone together" 

"Sounds tempting" You suddenly felt a hot stare in yo  ur back that made the little hairs in your neck stand up, you slightly touched the back of your neck a little confused, "But the thought of being in a hero course makes me sick" 

"Says the girl in front of U.A high" 

"Funny, either way I don't think I'm passing I..." 

You were cut off once more, but this time not by your friend on the other side of the phone. 

Something—more like someone—aggressively bumped into your shoulder knocking the phone out of your ear and making you lose stability. You instinctively clenched your fist, but at the same speed you released it, realizing it wouldn't be a good idea to start a fight outside of UA. So, you simply kneeled on the floor to grab your phone, holding yo skirt down and feeling the rough floor on your knees as you did so and ignoring whoever pushed you.

"Get out of my way before I set you on fire" this comment was made by the same person that bumped into you, but strangely enough wasn't directed to you.

Familiar voice.

You grabbed your phone still without looking up to the perpetrator, "Sorry, some asshole pushed me" you informed Kyo, who was still waiting on the call.

"And you haven't blowed  him up to pieces yet? Who is this lucky man?"

"I dunno, he has an interesting voice though, I could swear I..." you looked up.

It was him.

"y/n, you there?" 

Of course it was him, who else could have been?

You knew all along it was going to be him,but you tried to convince yourself you were just imagining things. But you were right, as you always were, even when you didn't wanted to be. 

"Did you killed him yet?"

You knew the chances of him being there. You knew he was going to be there.

Katsuki Bakugou was going to take the UA admission exam and you didn't thought about it before hand.

"Oh God, do I have to go to the police station for you?" 

By this point you were regretting not listening to your mother for the first time in your life.

"I'm here, sorry I gotta go" You finally replied to Kyo 

"Please don't do anything I would do"

"I'll be fine"

"Good luck! Not that you'll need it" 

"Thanks, call you later" You hanged up the call feeling your heart beating faster and your breath getting choppier, your eyes set on him.

You instinctively looked  to the person he was talking to. 

He was there too.

They say mother knows best for a reason, don't they? 

What was interesting was not only seeing a ghost from your past. 

Was seeing two of them.

"I'll be fine, what are the odds that I would be places with them in the exam? They're like 700 people here" you tried to convince yourself as you fixed your skirt taking a little longer than usual.

You waited a couple seconds before walking again, didn't want to bump into them any more than you did already. Then, when you were sure  the coast was clear, you walked towards the doors of UA high, ready to take an admission exam you had no reasons to take other than your own pride. 

{⋅. ✯ .⋅}

"With all due respect, if this is an error an official UA material it is shameful, we are exemplary students, we except the most from Japan's most notable school. A mistake such as this won't do!" 

"Who the fuck invited the princess to the exam?" You sniggered to yourself, making the ones near you that heard your complaints start to laugh, catching the attention of the room, including the one guy with glasses you were making fun of.

He pointed at you displeased, "This is not a laughing matter, is a serious concern for all of us!"

"Whatever you say, you majesty" You made a little bow gesture with your hand directly teasing him this time, gaining confidence from the approval of the room, now the laughter grew to almost  everyone that was present.

"OKAY!" Present mic yelled in an amusing yet loud voice making  everyone direct their eyes to the front once more, "Thank you, participant 701 for your valuable concerns..."

Present mic started explaining what the other robot meant, but by this time you had already lost all interest and decided to scribble on the corners of the print out in front of you.

But you couldn't really concentrate in your scribbles either, because you felt someone's piercing gaze on your neck once more, it was as if you could almost feel it burn it behind you, like someone was aiming at laser at you, a very evident and hot laser . However,  you dared not to turn around, afraid of meeting eyes of the person you least wanted to meet eyes with, so you kept scribbling, trying to ignore the burning gaze.

"That's odd", the girl next to you remarked pointing out at your desk 

Your first reaction was to hide with the palm of your hand the little doodles you were making, of course it was odd of you to make drawings on an official UA print out.

"I was just..." you nervously tried to excuse yourself but you didn't got the chance the girl didn't care about your doodles. 

"We are seated next to each other, yet we have different test locations" the girl continued 

You noticed that a while ago. UA wouldn't want two friends to help each other in the middle of an exam, they separated everyone that had close  examinee numbers. For instance, you, and the girl next to you, who happened to be a girl from your history class. Coincidentally the other girl to your other side will probably have a different test location as well.

"Test location A, what about you?" You asked as you looked back at your desk 

"Test location C... Do you think I'll be hard?"

"I think I'll be interesting" you dismissed her and went back to drawing once more.

It better be interesting.

 You arrived to your test location which seemed like a city in ruins, you could see all kinds of people stretching outside the gates. They all seemed so different, with all curious types of quirks, and remarkable physical appearances. Yet, you could pinpoint one thing they all had in common, the desire to succeed.  

You'll be lying if you said you weren't a little nervous—little in this occasion means with an intense desire to throw up and runaway in circles—or in other words, one can say you were afraid.  

You knew that you would be at a disadvantage because you didn't trained at all, you just decided to come last minute as if it was some type of shopping day. You didn't wanted to pass, but you didn't wanted to make a fool of yourself either. So, you would have to work twice as hard as everyone else... as you always had to.

 You started scanning the crowd, analyzing, hoping that in that way somehow you would recognize each person's weaknesses and come up with a way to overcome them.  Maybe having an strategy will calm your nerves. 

You thought that if you concentrated on how to beat the competition, you wouldn't have to worry as much about points.  

Carefully and still watching, you tied your hair up in a high ponytail, and then kneeled to tie your shoes to avoid any unpleasant surprises.  

As you scanned the crowd one last time,  you were was able to recognize  a familiar face amongst the crowd.  Angry looking, spiky hair  and extremely sweaty, the tall boy with blondish hair was stretching a few meters away from you with a face that only said "I'll kill anyone that gets on my way" 

For your luck, he couldn't see you from where you were standing.

 "Out of all testing places..." you said under her breath remembering the boy with disgust. 

You had no time to worry about him, because a new voice shouted from the distance, "What are you waiting for!? there is no countdown in a real battle"

I've should've have seen that coming.

Without thinking twice, you rushed to the battlefield with the others. 

The game has just begun.

{⋅. ✯ .⋅}

You checked your wrist in the mist of the situation you were trapped in, which in few words was: you hanging for your life on the back of a huge robot, that was attempting to throw you down to the ground. 

Looking at the time you slightly laughed to yourself, still hanging from the back of the robot, "Time does pass rather fast when you are having fun, huh" 

"You say?" The guy, who had the same idea as you, questioned your words that came so bluntly out of nowhere

"Me?"

"You see anyone else hanging from the back of an angry robot?"

You didn't had time to reply because the next second the "angry robot" decided to move aggressively to the right throwing you both of balance. The guy was quicker to react, and in the same second he decided to activate what apparently was his quirk, which made him look less like a guy and more like steel-scary-looking-sculpture. In his new form, he then stuck his hand and feet on the robot making it nearly impossible to fall from his back.

You, on the other hand, were observing all of this while falling through the air with your face aiming directly at the ground. 

It won't be pretty.

"Transformation quirk" you remarked in a bitter tone standing up from the ground "would come in handy in moments like this..." 

You stared for a while at the steel guy, carefully analyzing as he destroyed every inch of the robot, leaving it as a mere piece of trash, not threatening after all. It took him far less than a few minutes to get the job done. You knew it would've have taken much more in your own accounts, people aiming to get into UA were as talented as it gets. It didn't stress you a lot, you weren't aiming to get into the school.

Were you?

Minutes became shorter in the battlefield as you started to disarm robots. Your strategy was to try and destroy those who only gave on point to see how difficult they were and from then you began to level up. 

Soon enough you realized you didn't need to use your quirk to gain the points. It was enough to just change some cables and disable them. Even use other robots to destroy themselves.

After a while it became more like a game, a wretched game to try and outwit yourself. Prove you were good enough to pass an exam you didn't study for. 

You quickly noticed that the only type of robot that had yet to appear was the big ones who gave zero points. 

"Must be some kind of test" you muttered to yourself running towards another 2-point robot.

Near you, there was another robot's part, you decided it might me useful so you quickly grabbed it. 

It was fairly large and pointy, also heavier than it looked, and even then you decided to run along carrying this one, thinking of a way to use it.

You found one rather quickly, the two point robot stand before you, and your only way to defend yourself was a rusty robot arm. 

You jumped, still holding the part, and with it decided to use it as a nail and stick in one of the robot legs. It barely affected it, so you took it out and jumped again. And nailed it again. And again. All in the same leg.

Till you could hear the robot circuits messing up. After a few more tries the robot's leg was of no use and it became just one more rusty part. 

The robot fell. And with the robot now on the ground you decided to do the same thing you were doing with the leg in different parts of the robot's body. Stabbing it over and over. 

The robot stopped working.

You've got two points.

You kept sticking the thing like a nail a little longer even then.

Just to make sure.

"That makes it 39 points" You counted after your finishing touches

By this point you were terribly tired, since you had worked more than you could bear. You began to breathe heavily, putting your hands on your knees, full of exhaustion. You were done for now, there was no need to try and get tomorrow points either way.you had proven yourself long enough.

Till you heard an explosion nearby that made you look up.

 You ran towards the sound, only to find that hateful ghost from the past, he was destroying robots left and right with his Quirk. You seemed a bit... surprised. Since you didn't know he gotten so powerful. 

Apparently, the boy felt your gaze because he stopped dead in his tracks only to look in your direction.

His red burning eyes met with the tired yours for a few seconds, neither of you moved, but neither of you acknowledged that encounter. It  was as if he seen a ghost, and you a vague memory. Important, but not  enough to confront. 

You came to your senses immediately, and walked the other way. Far more important things to worry about, you were reminded, couldn't waste any more time. 

A thought crossed your mind.

If he was destroying robots that fast, you weren't nearly good enough as you expected to be. You hadn't prove anything. 

You destroyed a couple more. But it wasn't enough compared to him. 

 "45 points, I just need a few more"

 There were no longer enough robots in the arena.  

Apparently there would only be a certain number of robots in each battlefield, giving you one more problem to try and prove yourself.  Without more robots to destroy, you could not collect more points.

 In the distance you  saw a three-point robot and without thinking it twice you made a run after it.

 "48 is better than 45" 

But you were not the only one who had the idea. A blue haired girl and the same steel guy were also running after it. 

 Now all three ran towards the robot, each trying to destroy it first.

 You saw a broken staircase in one of the buildings,thought it could fall at any minute you began to climb it, giving the advantage to the other two who ran after the robot.  But you had an idea.

After a few missteps you reached the top of  the building, you started to run faster and made it just in time to launch yourself at the back of the robot.

 The two people froze when they saw your impulsive actions.

 As the robot moved frantically trying to make you fall, you searched for a way to disable it.

 "What kind of Quirk is that?" The steel boy asked the steel girl 

 "I don't know, but if she thinks it's going to stop me. It won't" the girl  in that instant threw herself to attack the robot even with you on it.

 "What the hell are you doing?" You yelled from the head of the robot

 "Getting a point" the girl replied

 "You are gonna fall!" Someone shouted behind your back

You turned around to look for the owner of that voice, when you lost focus for those few seconds, you lost your balance and the next punch  from the blue haired girl made your face aim for the ground once more. 

However this time was way worse, because the fall was from a higher place. 

 Your entire body was filled with pain, it felt as if each of her bones had broken and your head kept rumbling.

 "I can't stop now" You  said as your eyes begged to be closed, "If they hadn't distracted me," you clenched your fists as you got up from the ground feeling your heavier than before.

 In the distance you heard a roar.  A robot three times bigger than all the others was looming towards you, quickly.

Destroying everything in his path, and that was soon to be you crushed like a bug if you didn't move from there. 

 The robot was getting closer and there was no way for you to destroy such a large robot, much less in your current condition.

But you saw an opportunity, you were sure the robot was some kind of test and you weren't going to give up yet, not without another point. 

How to destroy it? How to disable it? What could you do?

Your time was running out, you needed to act now. 

Climb it?

Nail it again?

Aim to its face?

Someone yelled. More like a low scream full of terror. 

The blue-haired girl whose Quirk allowed her to make her arms bigger and stronger, was stuck in between two fallen pieces of fallen buildings, her arms were stuck to be exact.

"SOMEONE HELP" 

Everyone ran in different directions, no one seemed to care. Why should you care? It's because of her you lost the last point you could've obtained.

Got what she deserved, right?

No, it didn't felt right.

But you could shove that feeling of guilt away, as you always did.

One second.

What if that's the test?

 "What are you doing here?" The blue-haired girl asked worried

 "I-I don't know," You hesitated looking around for a solution.

 "What's your Quirk? Do something!" the girl desperately insisted trying to move

 "I don't have one that can help" you admitted, still searching for a solution.

 "You will kill us both!" The girl screeched.

"Just shut up and let me think" 

Your quirk wouldn't help much, her arms were stuck and if she tried to get them out it would rip them apart. 

But what if the pieces of the buildings were smaller?

You slightly touched her shoulder "I have an idea" 

"DO IT NOW WE ARE GONNA DIE"

"Only if you say it nicely"

"Oh, come on!"

The robot was getting closer.

"I don't have all day"

"PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME!"

You smiled unwillingly "My pleasure"

You started to kick and punch those pieces of fallen building that made the girl prisoner till they became nothing but mere dust. Your knuckles were red and bloody, and you were sure if you checked your feet they'll be the same. But the girl's arms were free and you quickly grabbed onto them making her stand up in an instant  to get her way from the colossal robot that was coming your way. 

The robot past right next to you, and if you've stayed for a few more seconds you would be the one that would have become dust. 

The blue haired girl looked pleased, she smiled at you lo thing a "thank you"

You nodded and walked away without more.

The robot kept going, the test was over. And you didn't got any more points.

{⋅. ✯ .⋅}

The rest of the day, you spent your time cursing yourself for not trying harder. You had no intentions of passing the exam, but you didn't like feeling like you failed either. 

 The next part of the exam was the written part.

You probably failed that part. With no prior studying and just your gut feeling for most of the answers. There was not much you could have gotten. 

You didn't care, right?

You were going to the other side of the world to take normal course classes, that's what you were going to do. You didn't want to be a hero.

You were doing this just for fun, nothing else.

But something within you felt unaccomplished.

And maybe going to UA was the only thing that will fill that void.

Only if you've prepared. 

 It was the end of the day. Time to go home and hear your mother lecture you for hours about how much you disobeyed her and how nonsensical were your decisions. The usual. 

As you walked back home with your sore body and bloody knuckles, someone caught your attention.

 "You don't have to thank me" He spoke appearing next to you "I didn't know you will take the exam, Ha! Just as delusional as Deku"

Without looking his way, in a bitter tone of voice you replied "what the hell are you talking about?"

 "You don't remember me" He smirked, to hide maybe the fact he was a little...hurt "Bakugou Katsuki, you used to go to my school"

You looked unfazed. Showing not the slightest glint of surprise or concern. 

"Best of all those losers... does it ring a bell?"

 "Why should I be thanking you again... Whatever your name is?

 "I know you don't have a strong quirk, but getting on the back of a moving robot was not a great idea," He explained a little more annoyed "much less when that boy was about to destroy it"

 "It was you!" You pointed at him with hatred "You distracted me!"

 "I did not distract you, I warned you" he scoffed away "And I shouldn't have, I only did because I felt bad for you" 

"You felt bad" you said the words slowly, keeping the anger that was rushing through your veins within you before you exploded

"Uh-ha. So because of me you are walking in your two feet right now" 

 "Because of you?" Your tone was getting louder "because of you I lost the points I could have earned. If it wasn't for you maybe I would have a chance to enter the school" You clenched your fist, ready to hit the boy in the face, even though he was clearly much taller and stronger than you were. You didn't care, you were mad and you were ready to take it out on anyone.

You stopped yourself  as you raised your fist.  It was the second time today you tried to attack someone, and you reminded yourself  it was not a good idea to try to attack a student in front of a hero high school. So, you lowered your hand and looked at the boy with disgust instead.

 "You are worse than Deku," he exclaimed, "did you really think you would have a CHANCE? How many points you've got, five, three?"

You loved to prove yourself, you could just tell him you got more than  40 points and that was enough to shut him up.

But you didn't  had any  need to prove to someone like him you were good, you couldn't care less about what he could think of you.  As far as you were concerned, you would never have to see that boy in her life again.

 "Never get in my way ever again" You spoke quietly, clenching your jaw reminding yourself he wasn't worthy, but with a calm and confident demeanor you walked away from the boy.

If in some kind of miracle you were admitted to UA and decided to attend, you now had something to look forwards at.

You were going to make Katsuki Bakugou life impossible.

 "I don't like being told what to do... but I hate being told what I'm not capable of"